Panoramic Gets OK to Turn Berkeley Moviehouse Into 227 Homes

Panoramic Interests has a green light to gut the back half of the former Regal UA Theatre in Downtown Berkeley and build a 227-unit apartment tower.

The San Francisco-based developer was approved to tear out the rear of the 92-year-old cinema to construct a 17-story highrise at 2274 Shattuck Avenue, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

In 2022, Panoramic filed plans to redevelop the historic cinema, a block from the UC Berkeley campus, into 239 homes.

The Art Deco moviehouse, which opened in 1932 as the United Artists Theater, closed last year. Plans call for a partial removal of the Regal building, leaving the historic facade intact.

The closure of Berkeley’s last operating movie theater for housing is the latest among a growing number of soaring apartment tower projects in a city with a severe shortage of homes.

“Things are slow right now in the development world, but Berkeley is a bright spot,” Patrick Kennedy, owner of Panoramic, told the Business Times. “The downtown in Berkeley is entering what we can call its Golden Age.”

Not everyone would agree, as a series of century-old moviehouses and historic homes now facing the wrecking ball has caused local pushback.

Save the UA Berkeley, which failed this year to have the historic theater be declared a historic landmark and protected from demolition, may appeal. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the facade a landmark, allowing Panoramic to redevelop the rest.

A representative of the preservation group told the Business Times it may appeal the project approval in light of two reports from a consultant hired by the city that cast doubt on whether the CEQA exemption granted for the project was justified.

The appeal window closes 14 days after the decision. An appeal would go before the City Council for a final vote.

If Panoramic can raise money for the project, construction could start late next year or in early 2026, Kennedy said.

Plans for the partial adaptive-reuse call for a ground-floor Art Deco-style cafe and 23 affordable apartments for very low-income households, qualifying the project for a density bonus.

Panoramic is considering using Assembly Bill 1287, which doubles the development potential with more affordable units, to boost the building to 22 stories, from 17. The developer also wants to employ mass timber, a fortified wood construction technique common in Europe and Canada.

Other developers have plans to turn the city’s former cinemas into homes. Gilbane, based in Rhode Island, is redeveloping the 110-year-old California Theatre at 2113-2115 Kittredge Street into a 23-story, 148-unit residential highrise.

The developer also used AB 1287 to add more height. And like Panoramic, it will also preserve the Art Deco theater’s facade and marquee, given landmark status by the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission.

Downtown Berkeley is growing taller faster than any other Bay Area city hub, largely because of new pro-housing laws from the state and local zoning code changes. As of last year, six buildings between 16 and 28 stories are proposed in Berkeley’s central core, including redevelopment of its historic theaters.

— Dana Bartholomew